Just another mama musing about her kids, Attachment Parenting, activism, photography, and life in general

Just a quick post to say we’re having a lovely, relaxing time out East.

Unfortunately, we seem to be a couple weeks early for the fall foliage, which is a HUGE bummer to me, but what can ya do? The website I visited while planning this trip said peak was around Oct. 1. The woman we spoke with today on our drive to the “mountains” in Vermont said that they don’t really start changing til around Oct. 12 or so. Arg! (BTW, I say “mountains” because they are so much smaller than what we’re used to in CO. In fact, the highest peaks in MA and VT are lower than the elevation we live at. hehe.)

Anyway, we have had a couple days of rain, but today was beautiful. Tomorrow is also supposed to be nice so we plan to hit the Appalachian Trail for some hiking. :)

Ava has been an awesome traveller, both on the 2 flights to get here and with all the driving we’ve been doing. She is having a blast (despite cracking her head into the coffee table in our condo on Sunday – poor thing). She’s being very friendly with Grandma and Grandpa (who are staying across the hall from us) as well as anyone and everyone we encounter in stores, etc. She sure is a friendly girl! And she’s starting to say more and more actual words (not just signs). It’s pretty exciting. :)

OK, I’m off to go soak in our jacuzzi tub. I’ll post again later in the week or when we’re back home.

Katy has declared this week’s SPF (Self Portrait Friday) theme to be cooking in your kitchen. These pics of me and Ava were taken last week while we made zucchini bread from the TONS of zucchinis we got from our garden this year. Ava loved to help mama stir the batter. She was a very good lil helper. She just needs a lil apron and she’d be all set. ;)
Go check out everybody else cooking over on Dirty Days.

I haven’t felt very verbose lately. I’ve got things in my head that I’ve contemplated writing about, but have decided not to get into it, not in detail anyway.

I will say that the guilty parties who had been “trolling” my site have come forward and apologized. I’m not sure whether we (I?) will be able move past this or not. They are women I’ve known for more than half of my life, and were my best friends in high school. We’ve taken different paths in life, we disagree on many issues, but I don’t know how to get over this. It doesn’t seem like our differences justify what they did. Time will tell. It’s an odd situation. I’ll leave it at that.

I got my hair cut yesterday and then went over to a friend’s house where I enjoyed a nice glass of wine. I need to do that more often – both hang out with other women AND have a glass of wine. ;) It was very much needed.

We’re getting ready to head out of town – to Western Massachusetts primarily (though we hope to also spend a day in Boston) – for a week. We leave on Saturday, Sept. 24, and will be meeting my parents there. I hope to see lots of beautiful fall foliage. The yellow aspen are pretty here in CO, but it’s just not the same as all the vibrant colors out east. I’ve never been to MA before, Ava’s never seen an ocean, and Jody’s never been that far east, so it should be memorable for all. :)

If I don’t get a chance to write tomorrow (because I will be frantically packing), I hope you all stay safe and well and have a good week. And I hope and pray that Rita somehow slows down and doesn’t cause much damage. It’s so scary that it’s happening again.

I may blog from the road – Jody will have his laptop – but I think a vacation from the blog might be good for me as well. ;)

I got my hair cut yesterday and it is this week’s HNT pic. Not quite as short as I wanted to go, but I am still happy with how it turned out. As part of the haircut, I got a scalp and shoulder massage and – oh my gawd – it couldn’t have come at a better time. After the crappy headache Tuesday and some other stuff that’s been stressing me out, it was sooooo much needed. I thought I was going to melt right into the chair. In fact, it made it easy for me to practice some grounding meditation, which I was also in DESPERATE need of.

Here’s my attempt at some creativity for HNT. Like the pseudo elf ear? ;)
Not familiar with HNT? Check out the guidelines here. And then go see who else is half nekkid today over at Osbasso’s, where it all started.

Here’s one more hair pic (for those interested) taken from the front.
Cheers! :)

I woke up with a headache today which has gotten worse as the day progressed. Ever want to put your head in a vice and squeeze it til it pops? That’s how I feel right now. Arg. At least I’m not puking too as I have in the past with my migraines. Gotta be thankful for small favors, right?
::groan:: Wake me up when it’s over.

It has now been nearly four weeks since the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina. I had not yet posted on this topic because I felt ill-equipped to comment on it. I don’t live near any of the affected areas, I don’t personally know anyone who was there. I only know what I see on the news or read on the internet, which I have to admit, hasn’t been a lot because I rarely watch the news and I haven’t been seeking it out on the internet until recently.

Immediately after the devastation, there was talk on several of my message boards – people wanting to help in any way that they could. Many organized relief efforts in their own small ways. One woman volunteered to accept clothing donations and notified others in her area of where trucks accepting donations could be located. Another woman asked for donations and tried to find jobs for a displaced family who would be staying in her city. Another asked for donations for a family that was staying with her sister. A coworker of Jody’s promised to match any donations people make to him before passing the money on to a charity. Another coworker, a dog lover, is making plans to travel to Louisiana to assist with the animal rescue efforts. It’s heartwarming to see people doing whatever they can to help with the efforts.

I can’t imagine being in the situation that so many are. Many lost everything in the storm, including pets, family and friends. My heart goes out to those who were affected.

I can’t imagine being stranded on a rooftop for days, without food or water, while helicopters flew overhead. I couldn’t believe that several days after the hurricane, there were still people stuck in situations like that. How many survived the storm only to die waiting for help? It’s incomprehensible.

I decided a few days ago to start a small collection of informative links regarding Hurricane Katrina. Yes, it’s been nearly a month since the disaster took place, but we can’t forget that these people will continue to need help for quite some time. If you have a link that you feel should be included here (especially regarding any families you know in need of help or donations), please leave me a comment with it. Thank you.

I read today that many people who’ve finally been allowed back into New Orleans are now being evacuated again as Hurricane Rita approaches. I can only hope this hurricane weakens as it approaches land and doesn’t cause any more damage or fatalities.

Local stories:
— Locally, three Great Harvest Bread Company stores donated 100% of bread sales on Sunday, Sept. 11, to Katrina Relief. The stores are usually closed on Sundays, but they opened for several hours on Sept. 11 to sell their two most popular types of bread for $5/loaf to raise money. They made $26,000.
— Jody‘s work matched any contributions made by employees. The company was able to send $10,000 to relief efforts.
— Out of harm’s way – Family finds open arms in Longmont after fleeing devastation

Also, human milk banks are “available to provide milk to Katrina Hurricane victim babies/children with a medically indicated need for human milk and who do not have their own mother’s milk available.” As a result, there is an increased need for donor mothers. If you have a large amount of breastmilk stored and don’t see an immediate need for it, please consider donating.

HMBANA (Human Milk Bank Association of North America).
Our hearts are with the people whose lives have been directly affected by Hurricane Katrina.

Please help us spread the word that HMBANA milk banks are available to provide milk to Katrina Hurricane victim babies/children with a medically indicated need for human milk and who do not have their own mother’s milk available. This will also require an increase in donor mothers. Help us inform interested lactating mothers, especially those in states with milk banks to call their nearest donor milk bank for further information.

Approval as a donor involves a triple screening process beginning with an initial phone screening for medical, dietary and lifestyle factors which might make the donor ineligible, followed by written documentation of their medical history and a signed medical release to be sent to both mom and baby’s health care providers, and last would be the willingess to have blood work drawn. Our screening process is similar to those used when one donates blood. I am most grateful for your assistance in this matter.

Thank you for reading. And thank you to everyone who has done their part (big or small) to help the victims of Katrina. It’s wonderful to see the goodness in people when they band together for a common cause. Peace.

According to a recent article published on Forbes.com, “The longer a mother breast-feeds, the higher the fat and energy content of her breast milk.”

“This is the first study to analyze the fat and energy content of breast milk of mothers who breast-feed for longer than a year,” said study co-author Dr. Ronit Lubetzky, who is with the department of pediatrics at Dana Children’s Hospital at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center in Israel. “There are more and more women who choose to breast-feed for longer time periods, and not many studies about the nutritional value of their milk during this prolonged lactation.”

“This is a nicely done study which looked at a question that really needed to be answered,” added Dr. Ruth Lawrence, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and a member of the executive committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ section on breast-feeding. “I think many people’s general impression is if you continue to breast-feed beyond a year, probably the nutrient value drops, and this is quite different information and very important.”

It’s very exciting to see that there are FINALLY studies being done on nursing past 12 months. I know many cultures have been practicing extended nursing for ages, but perhaps as more and more women do so in the Western world, we’ll see more studies of this sort.

I think it’s especially valuable because many people (including doctors – I know from personal experience) think that after 12 months, there’s no or little nutritional value to breastfeeding and this study proves otherwise.

More from the study:

It’s not clear what the effects of this higher energy and fat content are on a child’s health.

“We showed that the milk of mothers who breast-fed more than a year had a very high fat content,” Lubetzky said. “That contradicts the claim that breast-feeding at this stage has no nutritional contribution. On the other hand, the long-term effect of such a high-fat intake has not been studied.”

“The constituents of fat and human milk are very different than what we provide in formula today. One of the most important constituents of human milk is cholesterol. Formula does not,” Lawrence said. “There are many people who think that probably one of the problems with cholesterol today occurs because infants have not had any cholesterol in the first few months of life; perhaps the body doesn’t learn to deal with it. There are studies that show that young adults have much lower cholesterol levels if they were breast-fed than if they were bottle-fed.”

Still, Lawrence added, this is an area that needs to be researched further.

Lubetzky agreed. “Further studies should analyze this milk fat qualitatively, and try to sort out the influence of prolonged breast-feeding on cardiovascular issues,” she said.

Obviously, since extended nursing is a big part of my and Ava’s lives, this kind of stuff is fascinating to me.

I hope we continue to see more studies and more findings on the results of prolonged breastfeeding, especially in relation to immunities, the avoidance of allergies and the psychological effects. I think there is a lot to be learned.